Killian Hasley
Killian Hasley is Merrypail's one-man police force - possibly the easiest job in the city, given that in the absence of time and death nothing much of consequence can ever happen. His day-to-day duties mostly consist of investigating inflated or baseless claims made by Merrypail's moneyed citizens against each other, in the knowledge that the lack of a judiciary will ultimately render even these already quite-pointless tasks entirely so. He longs for a good murder. The above notwithstanding, he is recognized as a de facto authority in Merrypail, as no-one can remember a time when Hasley was not the police and therefore accept that a police force must, at some point, have been necessary for something. He is generally accepted as a force for an admittedly unspecified good - so long as he doesn't go poking his nose too far into the secrets of the elite. Without a justice system to employ him, Hasley's role is unpaid and he works only on commission. In a normal system, he would be described as deeply corrupt. In Merrypail, that's just the way justice seems to work. Hasley only has two publicly acknowledged open cases: investigating the theft of several vine saplings and catching professional criminal Lowen Slate. He is also working on several cases off the books: investigating rigged games at The Red and Black for Clayton Darrow, the serving of human flesh at Banquette, and the disappearance of Sophelia Verran. Events The player can assist Hasley in both his open cases. If the player explores Edison Lake's Laboratory, he can find the Missing Vine Saplings hidden inside the Giant Telescope. While Lake will first claim that the telescope is fully functional without the lens cap, he has in fact repurposed its lens housing tube to create a machine that crudely replicates the Vine's recombination effects. Revealing this to Hasley results in the destruction of the machine. If the player attempts to turn in Lowen Slate, Slate will flee his Den before Hasley's raid. Hasley will then be killed by a booby trap purchased from Edeline Wren, leaving the player free to search Slate's files for clues to the disappearance of Sophelia Varren. The player can investigate The Red and Black, but will find no evidence of tampering with the casino tables. However, if the player explores the basement they will discover a Bloodvine Chimera that is throwing games in the house's favour. The player can stamp on it or choose to leave it alone. If the player has spoken to Aurelia Lockey, they can then blackmail Kyla Devine into revealing information or expose her (falsely) as a witch. If the player investigates Banquette's ice house, they will discover that Leighton Morrell has in fact been serving meat that does contain human flesh. However, the animals in question are hybrids, re-seeded from a sickly end of the Vine which extrudes bizarre mutations instead of viable animals. These animals contain traces of all sorts of Merrypail fauna, including in humans. Rather than infamy, this revelation will bring the richest in Merrypail flocking back to a Morrell's flagging restaurant.